A blog about good food and bad food and the joy of eating - especially weird food.

I am a writer and a Mommy. I am a devout Jew.
These are the most important books I have read:
The Tao te Ching by Lao Tzu, Stephen Mitchell translation. Spiritual Divorce by Debbie Ford. Living Inspired by Akiva Tatz. My kitchen would suggest I'm a closet carny, as would my love of Branson.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Holiday of Light

Why are some people so afraid to act? What makes a person run from taking leaps of faith?

Do you think that everything happens for a reason? That there is a time to be still and a time to move forward?

I learned last night that the "or" in the Torah, the twenty fifth word of the Torah, refers not to light as we see it, but a spiritual light that existed in this world for only 36 hours before Adam ate the apple and the lights went out. Or maybe that spiritual light became hidden?

I am not clear on where it went but I see that we are trying to tap into the spiritual light when we light 36 candles on Chanukah over 8 days.

We are trying to marry the spiritual world with the physical world - that is the purpose of our lives.

But see, I for one, am just trying to get through each day without yelling at my kids.

I realized something last night as I drove home from learning about the spiritual light.

This time of year, when we all feel the darkness of the short winter days and the gloom of cloudy winter skies and the cold air and dread of looking back on a year and wondering if we did enough and the nervous anticipation of what the next year will bring we react with light.

We string our trees and homes with lights. We put menorahs in our windows. We light up the darkness with our hope.

The Tao says that hope is as hollow as fear - both are phantoms that arise from thinking of the self.

The Tao says, "see the world as yourself, have faith in the way things are. love the world as your self, then you can care for all things."